Bees for Development Journal 123 July 2017
Wild honey harvest Catriona Croft-Cusworth, CIFOR, Indonesia Additional contributors: Yeni F Nomeni, Melki Fobia, Novemris Tefa and Oktofianus Tanesi of the Olin-Fobia community
An ancient tradition
The Kanoppi Research Project in West Timor, Indonesia is a combined effort between the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). It has found that customary laws surrounding the harvesting of wild honey by the local Mutis-Timau community are having a strong impact on forest protection, at least equal to the national and provincial laws.
Harvesting honey is a sacred business for the OlinFobia Community combining indigenous and religious rituals. The traditional custodians live a two-day journey from the forest where they collect the honey. When the blossoms of Eucalyptus alba appear, preparations begin for a two or three-week camp. Food and shelter must be prepared for the journey, and personal conflicts are expected to be resolved before departure, ensuring social harmony among the community. Camp is set up at the place considered to be the ‘gateway’ of the harvest area, and religious prayers are performed.
Every year the traditional custodians of the Mount Mutis Nature Reserve travel back to their ancestral lands for an important cultural ritual – the harvesting of wild honey.
At nightfall, a group of people head out to the harvest location. Led by the Amaf (Community Leader), the group includes individuals with the technical and spiritual knowledge to safely collect the honey. The dangerous task involves climbing to branches 80 m above ground, where colonies hang from the towering trees. An older tree can host as many as 120 colonies.
The annual honey harvest is not only important for the continuation of an ancient tradition: it is an important contributor to social harmony, livelihoods and the preservation of the nature reserve as instructed by national law. According to scientist Ani Adiwinata Nawir: “It is a success story for community-based landscape management and how it can contribute to forest conservation.”
One person, the Meo One, makes the climb while another, the Meo Menesat, sings below, flattering the giant honey bees (Apis dorsata) by calling them ‘beautiful forest princesses’, and asking permission to take their honey. “They consider the bees as their partners in the harvest,” says Ani Adiwinata Nawir, Kanoppi’s Co-ordinator for Policy Research at CIFOR.
As a non-timber forest product (NTFP), Mount Mutis honey provides supplementary income for its harvesters’ livelihoods. And because honey production relies on a healthy forest environment, there is an extra economic incentive to ensure protection of the ecosystem it depends upon.
Using fire and smoke to repel the bees, the harvesters slice the honeycomb from the tree, bringing it back to
Photos © Nanang Sujana/CIFOR
Isak Fobia, leader of the Olin-Fobia community. He is responsible for guiding the honey harvesting ceremony from the beginning to the end, and for dividing the harvest among the community
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